Showing titles in Con Artists, Hoaxes & Deceptions

When Mosilo Mothepu was appointed CEO of Trillian Financial Advisory, in March 2016, the prospect of being at the helm of a Black-owned financial consultancy was electrifying for a Black woman whose twin passions were transformation and empowering women. Three months later, suffering from depression and insomnia, she resigned with no other job lined up. In October 2016, a written statement handed to Public Protector Thuli Madonsela detailing Trillian’s involvement in state capture was leaked to the media.

Debra Newell is nothing if not a survivor. By the time she met John Michael Meehan online, she lived through a near-fatal childhood illness, an attempted rape in her 20s, the traumatic death of her sister at the hands of her brother-in-law, four failed marriages, and a litany of dating disasters. But despite those tragedies, she seemed to have it all: adoring children, a successful business, a fabulous penthouse apartment. 

When scores of aspiring parents turned to the fertility industry to start families, they chose a remarkable young man to be the biological father of their children. He was a music prodigy and gifted athlete who had a genius IQ, movie star looks, and perfect health....

Peter Foster is a career conman who charmed his way into the lives of the rich and famous around the world. Justin Armsden is the reporter who’s been on his tail for 25 years. In King Of Sting, the two play cat and mouse as Armsden retraces Foster’s merciless series of stings, from Australia’s glittery Gold Coast to London, Fiji and beyond. Armsden reveals how Foster swindled more than $100 million from hopeful victims while earning the trust of Muhammad Ali, British first lady Cherie Blair, and singer-songwriter Samantha Fox.

Cold Cases: A True Crime Collection features case file facts, fascinating details, and chilling testimonies of the world's most famous cold cases. Written for true crime junkies and armchair detectives, this book delves into the investigations of JonBenét Ramsey, the Black Dahlia, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft, the Cleveland Torso Murders, and more.

Sono criminali che non cercano violenza o sangue, ma il cui ingegno straordinario sa infliggere colpi magistrali al patrimonio e al nostro orgoglio. In Il potere dell'inganno, Carlo Lucarelli e Massimo Picozzi vi condurranno attraverso le menti più brillanti e tortuose della storia del crimine: da chi ha venduto due volte la Torre Eiffel a chi ha ingannato i nazisti con falsi Vermeer, da ladre di diamanti che hanno operato per sei decenni a falsari diventati eroi nazionali. Venti storie avvincenti che esplorano il lato oscuro del genio umano, dove l'inganno diventa arte.

There was a time when DJ Carey didn’t need a surname. The star player of a Kilkenny hurling team that dominated the sport for a decade, he had a rare, natural talent that led his county to five All Ireland titles and won him nine All Stars. DJ wasn’t just a hero on the pitch—his easy charm, generosity, and readiness to meet young fans made him a national treasure. Throughout his meteoric rise, strange rumours followed him. In 2003, shocking claims that DJ was dying of cancer swept the country. Two decades later, the truth emerged. 

From 1977 to 1981, Ruth Finley, an ordinary wife and mother from Kansas, was tormented by an elusive maniac known as The Poet. The police, already on edge from BTK’s reign of terror, spent years searching for the stalker. Meanwhile, his cryptic letters in rhymed verse grew more disturbing and violent, spilling into deeds like stabbing and kidnapping.

Romance scams and other confidence schemes are among the world's fastest growing types of fraud. This book, written by two women featured in Netflix's The Tinder Swindler, will flip everything you think you know about relationship scams on its head. As everyone becomes increasingly vulnerable to these crimes, it's crucial to understand how to keep yourself and your loved ones safer.

More than a memoir, Judgement is a real-time chronicle of a life under siege. Written by Tulisa through a series of raw, unfiltered journals during the most turbulent year of her life, Tulisa captures, moment by moment, the downfall orchestrated by the notorious 'Fake Sheikh', Mazher Mahmood. The result is Judgement: an unflinching, no-holds-barred account of survival, injustice, love, betrayal and ultimately, redemption. Judgement is her incredible story.

These are the 14 red flags to identify the scammer in your life before they con you—from a victim-turned-vigilante and host of the hit podcast Queen of the Con. “Johnathan Walton has written a master class on how to spot scammers, con artists, grifters, and thieves. And his storytelling...

May Hanna gave her millionaire ex-husband's hired Pinkerton detectives the slip to sneak out of the country. To escape financial embarrassment, James Potter, the manager of a prominent Euclid Avenue apartment building, gave his family cough medicine laced with poison, killing his entire family including himself. Married to a Millionaires' Row doctor, the infamous con woman Cassie Chadwick posed as Andrew Carnegie's illegitimate daughter and forged a fake $5 million check.

From snake-oil salesmen to crypto grifters, the "fascinating" (Fareed Zakaria) story of charlatans—and why we fall for them For centuries charlatans have been bamboozling victims. But today, charlatanry is more lucrative and global than ever. Using the power of digital technology, our age’s...

The inspiring, dramatic, and heartwarming true account of an escaped convict and his wife of thirty-five plus years who never knew his secret, which captured the imaginations of millions on Humans of New York. Bobby and Cheryl Love were living in Brooklyn, happily married for decades, when the...

Just before the small-time bootlegger Max Gerlach died, he tried to reveal his secret: he was the inspiration for the mysterious Jay Gatsby. It’s a nice story, but was he telling the truth? Veteran reporter Joe Nocera and producer Poppy Damon investigate this century-old literary mystery and uncover untold secrets about the Great American Novel.

When Mark Kilroy vanished while on spring break in Matamoros, Mexico, the search for the missing pre-med student led to a gruesome discovery on a lonely stretch of land called Rancho Santa Elena: a mass grave containing Mark's mutilated corpse along with the remains of thirteen other people. The investigation uncovered how the victims were brutally killed at the hands of drug trafficker and cult leader Adolpho Constanzo, known by his followers as El Padrino, or The Godfather.

The most famous man in South Carolina lives jailed in the state capital. He stands accused of a staggering amount of wrongdoing—ninety-nine crimes and counting. Once a high-flying, smooth-talking, pedigreed Southern lawyer, Alex Murdaugh is now disbarred and disgraced. For more than a decade, prosecutors claim, Alex was secretly a fraud, a thief, a drug dealer and an all-around phony. On the night of June 7, 2021, they claim, he also became a killer.

As a string of high-profile jewel thefts went unsolved during the Swinging Sixties, the press dubbed the elusive thief the King of Diamonds. Like Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief, the King was so bold that he tip-toed into the homes of millionaires while they were home, hiding in their closets and daring to smoke while they were sleeping. Rena Pederson, then a young reporter with UPI, started following the elusive thief while she managed the night desk. With gymnastic skill, he climbed trees and crawled across rooftops to take jewels from heiresses, oil kings, corporate CEOs.

Brought to you by Penguin. London, 1932. Thomas James Wise is the toast of the literary establishment. A prominent collector and businessman, he is renowned on both sides of the Atlantic for unearthing the most stunning first editions and bringing them to market. Pompous and fearsome, with...

Absinthe, an elixir made of alcohol and herbs, is a booming business. Yet it is still an underground culture, associated with mystery, romance, and bohemian lifestyles, in keeping with its popularity among the writers, artists, and other ne'er-do-wells. First produced in eighteenth century, the spirit, known as "the Green Fairy," was banned worldwide by 1914 before the bans were gradually overturned beginning in 2005, the year Switzerland relegalized absinthe.